Before Saturday night, Southern had never beaten the Tulane men’s basketball team in five tries. So naturally, Tulane had to work hardest of all for win number six.

The Green Wave dangled the carrot just out of reach of the Jaguars as it held off a late rally, ultimately holding on to win 68-65 in front of a crowd of 1,606 at Devlin Fieldhouse on Saturday night.

Tulane (4-2) looked well on its way to maintaining the status quo over its instate rival early in the first half. The Green Wave cruised to a quick 14-1 lead over Southern (1-5), and carried a double-digit lead throughout the first half.

The teams hit the locker room at the half with Tulane up 34-21. A trey by sophomore guard Ricky Tarrant at the 14:54 mark in the second period gave the Green Wave a 17-point lead, its biggest of the game.

But the Green Wave’s shooting went cold as Southern made 9-0 and 7-0 runs to twice cut the lead to five points with 4:32 on the clock.

With Tulane leading 65-60 with 1:43 left to play, Southern sent Tulane senior guard/forward Kendall Timmons to the free-throw line. Kendall made one of two, opening the door for Southern’s Malcolm Miller to sink a 3-pointer to make it a one possession game.

Timmons went to the line over and over, again making one of two free throws with 0:23 left in play and Tulane leading 67-63. Southern’s Jamaal Grace made a layup to chop Tulane's lead to two points, its smallest of the game.

Timmons, fouled once more with 0:12 left in the period, again made 1-of-2 shots from the stripe. The Tulane bench held its breath as Southern’s Derick Beltran attempted to tie the score with a hastily set-up 3-pointer, which was no good.

“They just kept coming,” Tulane Coach Ed Conroy said of Southern. “They made some big shots in the second half and kept the energy up.”

Conroy said he preached the importance of a quick start to his team this week, and was pleased to see his players make shots early.

“We break out 11-0 and I was happy about that,” he said. “Midway through the second half, I thought our energy waned a little bit and we almost paid a price for that.”

Tarrant said the team got a little lackadaisical with such a big lead and lost some of its aggression in the second half.

“On defense we gave them a lot of easy looks,” he said. “We’ve just got to close our games, even when we’ve got big leads, and learn to just put it away. Southern, they have a good team. … any team can come back if you stop playing.”

Southern outshot the Green Wave, 44.4 percent to 38.8 percent, and had 35 rebounds to Tulane’s 34. But the Jaguars couldn’t contend with Tulane’s success at the 3-point line.

Fueled by a huge night from Tarrant beyond-the-arc (4 of 9), Tulane just made 7 of 16 free throws. Tarrant ended the game with 16 points, behind team leader, junior forward Josh Davis, who had his fourth straight double-double of the season, with 20 points, 16 rebounds, two blocks, and a steal.

“I just want to push myself, even in practice, to try to get every rebound I can at all times,” he said. “My coaches have been telling me in practice to push myself in every shot, to try to get every single rebound, so that’s what I’ve been focusing on.”

Tulane will face another instate rival when it hosts Loyola at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“It’s going to be a really good challenge,” Tarrant said. “They’re right across the street and they want to beat us just as bad as Southern wanted to beat us. We’ve just got to come to practice tomorrow focused and just do the things that we have to do. … and hopefully get another win.”